De Niro's Early Comb Ad Unearthed

The Oscar-winning Hollywood legend was still a budding actor in New York City when he took part in an advertising campaign for Remington's Hot Comb in the early 1970s.

A copy of the poster ad, thought to date from 1973, a year before De Niro's Academy Award-winning turn in The Godfather: Part II, has been unearthed by U.S. film critic Roger Ebert.

It shows the actor suffering several hair disasters in an open-top car, on a tennis court, and in the middle of a rainstorm.

Pictures of De Niro looking finely-groomed and with a sexy woman on his arm appear at the bottom of the ad - with text explaining that the Hot Comb will prevent the user from "looking like the nation's number one disaster area".